A little more than a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a intense operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all working on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
